


Lick Or...?

by purple_bookcover



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Aphrodisiacs, Candy, F/M, Masturbation, Other, fantasies, zagreus just wants to help a friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:49:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28532442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purple_bookcover/pseuds/purple_bookcover
Summary: Zagreus wants to help his friend Dusa. She deserves the world. She deserves to be happy. She deserves anything she could ever desire.Dionysus has something that might help.Or: Dusa learns about mortal candy and self love.
Relationships: Dusa/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 50





	Lick Or...?

**Author's Note:**

> How do you masturbate with no bits? I'm here to tell you. 
> 
> The Dusa/Zagreus tag is there because he facilitates and she fantasizes.

“I just want to help,” Zagreus said as blood pooled around him. 

He sat at the edge of the Phlegethon, feet burning from the proximity of the boiling river. 

“Hey there, Zag, man, I totally get it.” Dionysus sat beside him, apparently unbothered by Zagreus’s blood and the heat of the river. He patted Zagreus on the back, a move that nearly sent him toppling forward into the Phlegethon. Zagreus coughed, blood coating his hand. 

“I just,” Zagreus said, “I just wish there was something I could do for her.” 

The room faded around him, going dark at the edges. He hadn’t come here for this, but an encounter with the witches had left Zagreus with little doubt that he would soon see the Styx rather than the surface.

“You know, Zag,” Dionysus said, “I came here to offer _you_ some help, but if you don’t think you’ll need it...”

Zagreus laughed wryly. “It doesn’t look like I’ll need it this time, I’m afraid.” 

“You’re a swell guy, there, Zag,” Dionysus said. “Thinking of your friend at a time like this. Man, I tell you what, not too many who’d be singing that tune.” 

Zagreus tried to shrug, but one arm hung limp and broken at his side. “Dusa’s always one of the first people to greet me when I return to the House. She’s … she’s pretty special to me, you know. I can’t help thinking about her when I know I’m going back. I just wish I could make her feel … everything she deserves to feel.” 

Dionysus rubbed Zagreus’s back. For a moment they sat there in silence while Zagreus died, the river bubbling before them, all of Asphodel hissing with malice. 

“You know,” Dionysus said, “I could help.” 

Zagreus looked up. His whole body ached from the sudden motion. “Really?” 

“Yeah, man. I mean, I’d really be helping _you_ , but if you happen to pass the gift along to someone else, well, what can I do about that? I can’t see into the House anyway so...”

“Lord Dionysus, I can’t possibly thank you—”

“Don’t worry about it, Zag, man,” Dionysus said. “Show your little lady a nice time, OK?” 

He winked and held out his hands. Something lay across his palms, pale purple twists of what looked like very soft rope. 

Zagreus prodded at one. It was soft, squishy even. When he pressed something oozed within the spiral tube.

“Lord Dionysus, uh, what are these?” Zagreus said.

“A special treat for your special lady,” Dionysus said. “Mortals are wild for the things, I’ll telling you, man. Absolutely wild. They’re a sort of sweet, mostly just sugar.” 

“A sugar tube?”

“They call it a licorice.”

“Lick or...?” 

Dionysus laughed. “Licorice. Don’t worry about it too much, man. Those mortals go crazy for sugar. They’ll turn it into anything, let me tell you, Zag.”

“How will this help Dusa though, sir?” 

“Oh, you leave that part to me,” Dionysus said. “I added a special touch. Don’t you worry, Zag. Just give these to Dusa and make sure she takes a nibble, alright, man?”

Zagreus accepted the odd sweets, the soft ropes of sugar. He still didn’t understand, but his heart stuttered in his chest, making its distress known, and he collapsed onto his back. The watery arms of the Styx reached up for him.

Dionysus stood, towering over Zagreus. “Good luck, man,” he said. Then the sharp red light of Asphodel softened to black.

#

Dusted the sconces. 

Swept the floors. 

Wiped down the tables. 

Dusa floated out of the lounge, humming to herself as she wafted to her next task. Everything was in order, neat and tidy.

Zagreus crawled out of the Styx as she passed the main hall. Dusa gasped, fleeing behind a column. Fortunately, Hypnos got to Zagreus first, delivering some withering quip about maybe avoiding the river made of fire next time he wanted to go for a swim. Zagreus waved him off, slouching through the hall with the Styx dripping out of his hair. 

He looked up.

Dusa squeaked, dashing away. 

“Dusa,” he called. “Hey, Dusa, hold on. Just a moment. Please.” 

She paused despite every instinct screaming at her to run away instead and turned to face the prince. He smiled at her, big and toothy and dazzling. Zagreus swiped a hand through his hair in a gesture that left Dusa trembling in mid-air. 

“W-what can I do for you, Prince?” she said.

“I got you a gift,” Zagreus said. 

“A-a-a gift?” Dusa said. “For me? P-prince, you really didn’t need to—”

“It was no trouble,” Zagreus said. “Please, it’s just something I’d really like you to have.”

Dusa squirmed, but said, “Well, alright, Prince. I-if you really want to.”

“I do,” Zagreus said, beaming and beautiful and looking right at her. Dusa’s face flushed. Then Zagreus held out his hands and presented her with … purple string? 

“P-prince, I’m not sure...”

“It’s a sweet,” Zagreus said. “A sweet from the surface. Mortals love it. They call it licorice.”

“Lick or...?” Dusa said. One of her snakes tentatively wrapped around the sweets and plucked them out of Zagreus’s hands. They were light and soft and completely unremarkable. 

“Just give them a try,” Zagreus said. “I promise, it’ll be worth it.” 

With that, he held up a hand in farewell and trotted away, flaming feet flashing as he dashed off through the House.

#

Dusa kept the sweets. She set them on the little dresser in her room, beside the hanging cot she nestled into to sleep. 

She rested there now, cozy between her pillows, her snakes calm and sedate, and stared at the strange gift from the prince. She supposed she was meant to eat them, but eating was an optional activity down here, one she’d mostly ignored since becoming the House’s helper. Why would Zagreus bring this specifically for her? He didn’t really indulge in food either. Maybe it was merely because this treat came from the surface? But then why waste it on her of all people? 

One of her snakes roused, brushing against her cheek. Dusa sighed out a breath. 

“You’re right, you’re right,” she said. He looked so happy when he gave her this odd gift. Zagreus brought presents to everyone around here, though. Maybe it just made him feel good to give things to his friends. “I should just enjoy it, huh?” 

The snake nuzzled her cheek.

“Alright, fine. Choose one. I’ll try it.”

But when her snake went to reach for the candy, the candy reared up, snakelike itself as it curled upright and faced Dusa. 

“W-what?” 

The candy tilted its … head? … to one side as though considering her, then slithered forward, crawling over her dresser and into her hanging net of pillows. It crawled right up to Dusa, sitting poised before her. Then it jutted forward, prodding at her lips.

“I-I can’t possibly eat you now,” she said.

The sweet shook its head from side to side, then prodded again, begging for permission. 

Dusa carefully parted her lips and the sweet squirmed in, heavy on her tongue. She bit down, terrified the entire time she’d hear a scream, but the confection gave way easily. The remaining half of the licorice pulled back, watching her calmly as she chewed. 

It was … plain. Mellow. Chewy. Unremarkable. At least until she broke through the outermost layer. Something sweet burst in her mouth, a gooey liquid that flooded her senses. It was almost like ambrosia (another gift Zagreus had insisted on giving her) except so much more. As it spread down her throat and into the void where her body once was, warmth followed it, a warmth that glowed in her cheeks and stirred the snakes atop her head. 

The snakes roused and hissed, shimmying around her. She could tell their moods just by the rattle and flicker of their tongues. She trembled in concert as the candy’s effect pulsed through her. 

It was something like … something like when he looked at her, when Zagreus, a prince, the son of Hades himself, deigned to smile at someone like her, to bring her gifts, to talk with her about his adventures and how her day was, his eyes keen and intent, like she was one of the gods or heroes he met along his way. Surely, she couldn’t be as interesting or noteworthy as any of them, yet he listened to her like her stories were worthy of Orpheus’s music. 

She didn’t realize she was humming with pleasure, literally murmuring some little tune to herself, until her snakes wove around her in time. One stroked her cheek. One flicked its tongue out to caress her face. 

And one, one more clever than the rest, it wrapped around the remainder of the licorice strand she’d bitten into and brought it to her mouth. She ate more eagerly this time, not afraid of the way warmth spread through her after a few chews. From the moment she bit down and that gooey filling burst in her mouth a thrill quivered through Dusa. Her snakes rattled like a jar full of marbles being shaken around. 

He looked into her eyes. 

Or perhaps her eyes were closed and she imagined it. 

It didn’t really matter. Either way, the prince’s mismatched eyes bore into hers, the red one hot and searing, the green one soothing and cool. He was like Asphodel and Elysium both, terrifying and beautiful all at once, overwhelming and comforting. But this time, the contradiction of his chaos did not frighten or alarm her.

Dusa sank into her nest of pillows. The plush fabric seemed almost to encase her, like feathers brushing against her skin. It felt nice. She nestled against it, rubbed her cheek on a pillow so it stroked her face like fingers. She didn’t even quite realize she was doing it. It was a current carrying her along, like the way the rivers of the underworld took the dead precisely where they needed to be. This current took her somewhere warm and safe and light, somewhere that spread a pleasure through her so big it almost seemed like she really did have a body to feel it all with. Surely the tingle in her blood, the tremble in her lips, the quiver of her eyelashes – that couldn’t all be contained in one little gorgon head. Surely, there was more somewhere. 

She did not know how she came to eat another of the licorice strands. Perhaps it squirmed on its own into her mouth. Perhaps a snake brought it to her. Perhaps she left her nest long enough to get it herself. 

However it happened, it left her almost delirious. The room blurred into a swirl of colors. She could not say if her eyes were open or not, but it hardly mattered. Dusa rocked against the pillows, nodding her whole head to rub her cheek against soft fabric. Her snakes hissed and writhed, drowsy in their bliss. 

Her mouth dropped open and a sigh escaped. It was like a sound from another’s mouth. More followed it, soft little panting breaths, even the occasional moan. Dusa was no fool. She’d heard these sounds before all over the House, not infrequently in the prince’s room. But she’d never heard them from herself, she’d never wallowed in the comfortable heat of her own breaths, never listened to the music of her own desire soft around her. 

_I got you a gift,_ he said, a whisper at her ear. His voice wound through her, pulling her along like a guiding hand. 

_Please,_ he said, _it’s just something I’d really like you to have._

Is this what he meant? Is this what Zagreus hoped would happen? Did he think the candy would effect her this way, would leave her drooling and grinding against her pillow? 

Even the slimmest possibility that that was true drew out a deeper moan. Dusa clenched her teeth around it to stem the tide of the ache that rose alongside it. Water sprang to her eyes. 

“Prince,” she breathed. Then, “Zagreus.” 

It was like he was there with her, stroking through her snakes, fingers tingling on her cheek, voice coaching her along as she squirmed toward her pleasure. She shook, biting down on the pillow to ease the wave that threatened to overwhelm her. 

He was always so kind to her, but the truth was, he wasn’t here now. This was her, just her. Every sensation, every tingle and sizzle, every rush of sudden ecstasy – they were hers and hers alone. Zagreus had helped, the licorice had helped, but what boiled up in her now was hers. Somehow, that made his gift all the sweeter and more precious. 

Therefore, she did not yell or gasp for him when the feeling finally overflowed. She cried wordlessly at her room, face buried in her nest of pillows, and trembled and trembled until the water collected at the corners of her eyes spilled down her cheeks in a joyous river. 

She stayed nestled into her pillows for some time, letting the tears come, letting it all wash out of her. Her snakes lounged drowsy and content around her, more still than she’d ever known them to be. Dusa did not cry from shame or pain or loss. It was a welling of trapped emotion, an easing of a pressure she hadn’t realized had been straining inside her for so, so long. 

Eventually, it subsided, leaving Dusa as dreamy as her snakes. She turned over in her nest, bleary-eyed from what had just passed through her, and saw the licorice on her desk. A few strands yet remained, which meant she could do this again. Next time, she’d know better how to go about it, what to expect. 

Maybe, some day, she’d even ask him to share one with her. 

Maybe. 

Dusa smiled to herself at the thought. He didn’t need weird magical sweets for that, but maybe the prince would join her anyway. Just because.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/purplebookcover) (18+ please).
> 
> I respond to every comment. Thank you, friends!


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